Page 40 of Emergency Engagement

‘Jesus, Sammy.’ He held her gaze. ‘What did you tell her?’

Rafael stiffened, every damning word driving a knife deep into a part of him he hadn’t known existed. A part of him thatwasn’t as invincible as he had always cared to think. He was that man: the man who had never committed; the man who played the field and had always done so without a conscience. The guy who had figured that to be upfront from the start was to deliver immunity from the consequences of broken relationships. To hear those words delivered casually by the woman now speaking them was to be judged and found wanting in a way that cut to the core.

‘I told her that I could take care of myself and that she wasn’t to worry.’ Sammy drank what was left of the champagne in one long swallow that made her splutter. ‘And when it ends,’ she continued in a rush, ‘I can tell her that it was a learning curve and that I’ll never rush into anything ever again, but that I have no regrets.’

‘No fizzling out? I thought you were a fan of the gradual tapering off when a relationship starts going pear-shaped,’ Rafael said.

‘No—no fizzling anything. I’ll tell her that I discovered, once we left this paradise, that you were someone I couldn’t live with in the real world. I’ll tell her that you were my adventure.’

Rafael gazed at her long and hard. What was really going through her head? What was going through his was terrifying because he knew that more than his body was involved in this dangerous game. His heart had become involved as well. But did she feel the same? It was impossible to tell.

‘We should give her time to digest everything.’ He lowered his eyes.

‘What are you saying?’

‘We stay here for a little longer. I can oversee the hotel and work remotely. We can let the dust settle so that when we return to England your mother is less...devastated and more philosophical about what you...we...might have to tell her. I won’t let you break that kind of news on your own.’

‘We stay here?’

‘And you ...’ he smiled crookedly but his dark eyes remained serious ‘...you might find that I really am the kind of guy you could never live with in the real world...’

CHAPTER NINE

SAMMYWANTEDTOreturn to Yorkshire immediately. She could easily imagine her mother worried and fretful and wondering what the hell was going on.

There was no way she could ever think that a sudden engagement was ever going to be anything but trouble. Even if there’d been no engagement—if Sammy had said in passing that she and Rafael were going out, maybe casually dating, or had been out for a cup of coffee together—her mother would still have had her antennae quivering with suspicion. Rich guy and speedy attraction...add those two things together and what she’d get wastrouble.

Her mother’s past had taught her enough about chancers for her to be instinctively wary of someone like Rafael. Frankly, to be wary of any guy showing up and suddenly becoming an item in her daughter’s life after five minutes. Victoria’s call would have set the wheels in motion, and mention of an engagement would have been the icing on a very bad-tasting cake.

Rafael, though, calmly talked her out of it as they sat on that beach towel, each staring out at the blue ocean whilst working their way to a solution to the sudden complication that had arisen.

‘We can easily stay here for another couple of weeks, by which time your mother will have calmed down,’ he said.

‘You don’t know my mother.’

‘No one can stay anxious for weeks on end. After a while, it dulls.’

‘Again, you don’t know my mother. After our stepfather disappeared from the scene, Mum suddenly took on a ton ofguilt for the massive wrong decision she had made in marrying him in the first place. She made it her mission to make sure that I, in particular, didn’t do anything rash when it came to my emotions.’

‘What about Colin?’

‘She automatically assumed that Colin would be able to look after himself.’ Sammy half-smiled. ‘Don’t ask. At any rate, she drummed it into me that I should always be careful never to be taken advantage of.’

‘Is that why you developed that checklist for boring men?’

‘“Kind, thoughtful and reliable”doesn’t automatically mean boring.’

‘If you say so.’

‘Anyway, I could stay away for a week or a month or a year and my mother would still be worried sick that I was making a mistake. I think we should go back to England and tell her immediately that the whole engagement thing was a fabrication.’

‘We could do that.’

But then he turned to look at her, reached and touched her, just a light, feathery touch that had made her melt.

‘But Sammy, let’s be honest with one another. The engagement might have been a fabrication but what we have together—this thing between us—that’s real.’ He paused, frowned and took a sudden step back. ‘The passion, I mean. The flame that can’t be put out. Don’t tell me thatthat’snot real.’

‘Yes, well...’

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